Latest news with #GeorgeBrauchler
Fox News
7 days ago
- General
- Fox News
Sanctuary policies in deep-blue Colorado led to terror attack, says local DA
Permissive laws in deep blue Colorado created an environment in which last weekend's antisemitic attack could occur, a local district attorney told Fox News Digital. In an interview with Fox News Digital, George Brauchler, a Republican district attorney for Colorado's 23rd district, said that the state government, which is dominated by Democrats, has been intentionally creating a lax, sanctuary-type environment regarding immigration enforcement. This, he said, emboldens illegals, such as Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the suspect accused of firebombing pro-Israel activists on Sunday, to act with impunity. A DHS spokeswoman has said Soliman, an Egyptian national, was living in the country illegally at the time of the attack. He entered the United States in August 2022 with a visa that expired in February 2023, the spokeswoman said, noting he applied for asylum during that time. Soliman allegedly injured eight adults, including a victim who was 88 years old, at an outdoor mall in Boulder, according to the FBI. The suspect was witnessed shouting "Free Palestine" during the attack and using a makeshift flamethrower to target the crowd, the FBI said. Police said the victims were hospitalized with burn wounds. They had been participating in a Run for Their Lives protest, which, according to the Anti-Defamation League, is a weekly event attended by members of the Jewish community to support hostages held in Gaza by Hamas terrorists. Discussing the brazen attack, Brauchler said: "When you have taken the ongoing steps that our state government has taken over the past many years to identify yourself to everyone, both citizen and noncitizen alike, that you are a sanctuary state - and it doesn't matter if they ever say those words, what matters is the policies in place - and when you had put local law enforcement on its heels, when it comes to trying to coordinate with immigration enforcement authorities, you create an environment where someone feels like visa or no visa, I can stay here and do whatever I want, whether it's to try to find a job off the books or to plan for a terrorist act against Jews up in Boulder." In response to the attack, Brauchler said he expects the Trump administration may assume control of the case and "make an example" of the perpetrator. "In the past, you would see some deference by the federal government to local prosecutors who showed an interest in prosecuting high-profile cases," he said. "But in this day and age, with illegal immigration being an issue, with the anti-Semitic terrorist acts being an issue, I can foresee President Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi saying, 'We're taking this case, we're going to use every tool at our disposal, we're going to highlight this prosecution, we're going to make an example of this guy, and we're going to send a message.'" Brauchler said that though "we've seen antisemitic stuff before out here, never in my recollection at this scale or this brazenly having somebody do this." "My worry is if we don't make a big, loud, powerful statement sooner rather than later, these things are going to start to repeat themselves, not just here, but everywhere," he said. "This is another horrific blemish on a state that I have known as home my entire life," he went on, adding that "because of the powers that be and the policies that have been put in place over the last 10 or 15 years, I don't recognize Colorado anymore." "It's hard to imagine, and it's just another black eye for our state that we didn't need," he said.
New York Post
09-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Republican DA bucks blue state's ‘broken sentencing' with tough-on-crime approach
A tough-on-crime Republican district attorney is using his years of prosecuting some of the most infamous cases in Colorado to crack down on crime across the blue state. In January, George Brauchler became the first-ever district attorney for Colorado's 23rd Judicial District, making it the first time in more than 60 years that Colorado added a new judicial district. He previously served as DA for the 18th Judicial District, where he prosecuted some of the state's biggest mass shooting cases, including at an Aurora movie theater and Columbine High School. 'I was a very young prosecutor when Columbine happened, and Columbine was the high school immediately to the south of where I graduated from high school,' Brauchler told Fox News Digital during an interview. 'And so, when it occurred to be assigned to prosecute the felonies out of that, I thought at the time that would be the biggest, worst case I would ever handle, and I was wrong and that's an amazing revelation to come to in this job.' Soon after Brauchler was elected to a 'broader version' of his current jurisdiction, the Aurora theater shooting case happened. 'A guy walked into a movie theater at about 2:25 in Alameda and tried to murder a theater full of people, and I ended up prosecuting that. We also ended up having a mass shooting here at a school at the end of my time in office. I was also asked to do the mock cross-examination of the victim in the Kobe Bryant rape case out of Vail back, I don't know, almost 20 years ago now. It's not anything you could really ever plan for. It's just, you're there. You always say yes,' Brauchler explained while reflecting on his earlier career. 5 George Brauchler became the first-ever district attorney for Colorado's 23rd Judicial District, making it the first time in more than 60 years that Colorado added a new judicial district. Fox News 'You end up developing a skill set and an expertise. And then you find yourself in a position to run for the first new district attorney's office in over 60 years in Colorado. And you think, for whatever it's worth, as humbly as I can put this, there just isn't anybody that brings to this job right now the kind of experience that I have. And I hope to use it for the benefit of my community.' Last month, Brauchler secured a rare first-degree murder conviction in a high-profile DUI case, which marked the first murder trial in Colorado's newly formed 23rd Judicial District. The case involved Paul Stephenson, 57, who Brauchler said drank a bottle of Fireball and two beers before crashing into a minivan that was parked in Castle Rock last August. 'That case was so disturbing to me on a lot of levels,' Brauchler said. Lt. Col. Matthew Anderson, a 39-year-old Air Force test pilot and father of four, was killed while pumping gas. His wife was inside the gas station store at the time of the crash. One of their children suffered a fractured skull and two others were also injured. 'On a Sunday afternoon, filling his car with gas while his wife goes to get the kids Popsicles, some two-time convicted drunk pours himself into a lifted Chevy Silverado, crosses five lanes of traffic, hops a curb, hits the accelerator to 98% and crushes that car at 45 miles an hour, injuring three of the kids and killing Lt. Col. Matt Anderson,' Brauchler said, describing the horrific scene that unfolded. 5 Eric Harris, left, and Dylan Klebold, carrying a TEC-9 semi-automatic pistol, are pictured in the cafeteria at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, during their April 20, 1999, mass shooting. AP 'In Colorado, the gut reaction charge would be, oh, that's vehicular homicide. And that sounds horrible, but in Colorado, we have some of the weakest traffic laws in the country. So vehicular [homicide] would have only been punishable at most by 12 years in the Department of Corrections. Given our broken sentencing scheme, that guy would have been paroled in probably less than four years, and that seemed wholly unacceptable to me and everybody that looked at this case,' Brauchler continued. To ensure that justice was served, Brauchler said his office got a 'little aggressive' and charged the driver with first-degree murder based on 'extreme indifference.' 'We pursued it. And I'm not going to tell you it didn't have risks. I'm not going to tell you that I didn't have a pit in my stomach. But in about three and a half hours of deliberation after about a weeklong trial, the jury came back and said, 'Yeah, guilty of first-degree murder,' and we're all pretty satisfied with that outcome,' Brauchler said. Brauchler added what this case also highlighted was that he feels 'we have lost sight of the purpose of the criminal justice system and taken our eye off the ball on day-to-day crimes,' like DUI. 'One thing about this is that there is no time of day, no road you can drive on that you can say, 'Well, I'm safe from drunk drivers at this time on this road.' My God, this was Sunday. On a road in the middle of Castle Rock, not a highway, on a road but across the street from the Douglas County Fair. If we don't, I think, vigilantly attack this problem as much as any other, maybe more so, we're going to see more of this, and this is the most preventable crime there is. This guy chose to risk people's lives, and now he's going to lose his freedom,' Brauchler said. Brauchler said Anderson's wife and children have recovered, but the ripple effects of witnessing the horrific scene are 'still unknown as to how far they stretch through their lives.' 5 Colorado movie massacre gunman James Holmes (C) leaves court for the last time before beginning his life sentence with no chance of parole after a hearing in Centennial, Colorado, on Aug. 26, 2015. REUTERS 'How does seeing the violent death of their father in front of them, the way they saw him lying in the parking lot with a massive head injury, missing his leg above the ankle, how does that haunt them throughout the rest of their lives? I don't think anybody knows,' Brauchler said. 'I have spoken with the widow many times. She is resilient and tough, but you can also see there's something missing in her eyes. I don't know how better to describe it, but I've seen it a lot with loss like this and that blue flame that flickers back there that tells you somebody's fully engaged is just a little more diminished. It's a little harder to see. And my hope for that family is that they can figure out a way to find happiness even without Col. Anderson.' Tom Mustin, director of media relations for Brauchler's office, told Fox News Digital that 'typically, DUI cases lead to vehicular homicide charges, but this case set a new precedent and reflects DA Brauchler's tough-on-crime approach that helped win him the office.' 'I don't shy away from the description 'tough on crime,' but when did simply enforcing the law and having an expectation that there would be accountability for breaking it become 'tough on [crime]?'' Brauchler said. 'That just tells you how far we've shifted away from the idea of personal responsibility for criminal conduct. But I'm proud of the position we've taken. It's been well-received everywhere. And I mean not just in our jurisdiction, but when I go to other jurisdictions.' 5 This July 2012 evidence file photo provided by the Arapahoe County District Attorney's Office shows an assault weapon and blood on sandals following the July 20, 2012, Colorado theater shooting by James Holmes in Aurora, Colo. AP Brauchler, a Republican DA in the heavily blue Denver metro area, said Colorado has 'taken such a sharp turn towards the progressive left that every other office is now dominated by Democrats,' which makes his position unique. 'I'll tell you one thing that sticks out to me that's odd is that I've made a real point of telling the public, even before I took office, we're going to be an office that stands for the rule of law, and that if people come down here to steal from us or victimize us, they ought to expect to be incarcerated,' Brauchler said. 'That message has been so overwhelmingly received and in a positive way, like people clap when I say that.' Brauchler added that when he started working in his field 30 years ago and had this same messaging, it would have been a 'yawn fest.' 'People would have been like, 'Duh, that's what prosecutors and police do.' But that's how far we've shifted in the other direction,' Brauchler said. When asked about other high-profile cases like the Menendez brothers' case in California, Brauchler said 'there's no good message that comes out of these two ever walking out of prison.' 5 Brauchler shows a map he made in jest showing where criminals can drive to bypass the new district, during a press conference at the Douglas County Administration Building in Castle Rock, Colorado on Dec. 18, 2024. Denver Post via Getty Images 'I remember when these cases happened, and I followed them like everybody else,' Brauchler said. 'But this was a brutal, planned murder for the most selfish reasons possible. Anything they come up with at this point, by way of excuse, has already been air-dried in front of the jury and rejected when they were convicted. There's no good message for America that comes out of these guys ever taking a free breath again.' Brauchler said what is troubling about the Menendez brothers' case being brought back up is that 'every time something like this happens and someone sees any amount of success, it encourages others to do this.' 'You have to believe that there are any number of defense attorneys out there who are willing to shoot for the notoriety or the paycheck. In order to try to capture something like this, I'm not denigrating them. I know that's business, but the answer should be that we should forget about the Menendez brothers.' Brauchler said what the Menendez brothers' case highlights is something that has been happening since the Aurora theater shooting that is amplifying killers. 'There has been a real concerted effort by decent people and many in the media to no longer amplify the killers; like, we should be focused on the victims. I would say since the Aurora theater shooter, I've said that guy's name maybe four times through the whole trial, which lasted from Jan. 20th until April 7th, 2015. I said his name exactly twice. And that was by design,' Brauchler explained. 'And so here we are again, focused on the Menendez brothers and the Netflix things about the Menendez brothers. And I understand that, but we should really de-glorify the criminals and focus more on the victims and the crime that was committed. And I think that if you let these guys out, you do the opposite.' Brauchler added that there are even studies now about thecorrelation between the amount of notoriety that a criminal gets and then copycat-type crimes. 'I'll give you an example with Columbine. The STEM school mass shooting that I covered, both of those shooters had passing fascination with those Columbine shooters. We had a near-mass shooting at another high school right down the road from my kid's high school. They both had a fascination with the Columbine shooters and the Aurora theater shooter. Guess which case he researched before he left his apartment back on July the 19th to go murder these people? Columbine. So, the more notorious an event or some people become, it does have an effect on other folks,' Brauchler said. 'I get it, we have to report the bad guy or bad girl at least once,' Brauchler continued. 'Then after that, let's not talk about them anymore. Let's talk about the crime. Let's talk about the victims, and let's go to court.'
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Republican DA bucks blue state's 'broken sentencing' with tough-on-crime approach
A tough-on-crime Republican district attorney is using his years of prosecuting some of the most infamous cases in Colorado to crack down on crime across the blue state. In January, George Brauchler became the first-ever district attorney for Colorado's 23rd Judicial District, making it the first time in more than 60 years that Colorado added a new judicial district. He previously served as DA for the 18th Judicial District, where he prosecuted some of the state's biggest mass shooting cases, including at an Aurora movie theater and Columbine High School. "I was a very young prosecutor when Columbine happened, and Columbine was the high school immediately to the south of where I graduated from high school," Brauchler told Fox News Digital during an interview. "And so, when it occurred to be assigned to prosecute the felonies out of that, I thought at the time that would be the biggest, worst case I would ever handle, and I was wrong and that's an amazing revelation to come to in this job." Parents Outraged By Homey Prison Life For Driver Who Killed Their Son: 'How Is This Justice?' Soon after Brauchler was elected to a "broader version" of his current jurisdiction, the Aurora theater shooting case happened. Read On The Fox News App "A guy walked into a movie theater at about 2:25 in Alameda and tried to murder a theater full of people, and I ended up prosecuting that. We also ended up having a mass shooting here at a school at the end of my time in office. I was also asked to do the mock cross-examination of the victim in the Kobe Bryant rape case out of Vail back, I don't know, almost 20 years ago now. It's not anything you could really ever plan for. It's just, you're there. You always say yes," Brauchler explained while reflecting on his earlier career. "You end up developing a skill set and an expertise. And then you find yourself in a position to run for the first new district attorney's office in over 60 years in Colorado. And you think, for whatever it's worth, as humbly as I can put this, there just isn't anybody that brings to this job right now the kind of experience that I have. And I hope to use it for the benefit of my community." Last month, Brauchler secured a rare first-degree murder conviction in a high-profile DUI case, which marked the first murder trial in Colorado's newly formed 23rd Judicial District. Blue State Sanctuary Laws Enabled Illegal 'Abolish Ice' Activist To Evade Capture, Says Local Da The case involved Paul Stephenson, 57, who Brauchler said drank a bottle of Fireball and two beers before crashing into a minivan that was parked in Castle Rock last August. "That case was so disturbing to me on a lot of levels," Brauchler said. Lt. Col. Matthew Anderson, a 39-year-old Air Force test pilot and father of four, was killed while pumping gas. His wife was inside the gas station store at the time of the crash. One of their children suffered a fractured skull and two others were also injured. "On a Sunday afternoon, filling his car with gas while his wife goes to get the kids Popsicles, some two-time convicted drunk pours himself into a lifted Chevy Silverado, crosses five lanes of traffic, hops a curb, hits the accelerator to 98% and crushes that car at 45 miles an hour, injuring three of the kids and killing Lt. Col. Matt Anderson," Brauchler said, describing the horrific scene that unfolded. "In Colorado, the gut reaction charge would be, oh, that's vehicular homicide. And that sounds horrible, but in Colorado, we have some of the weakest traffic laws in the country. So vehicular [homicide] would have only been punishable at most by 12 years in the Department of Corrections. Given our broken sentencing scheme, that guy would have been paroled in probably less than four years, and that seemed wholly unacceptable to me and everybody that looked at this case," Brauchler continued. 'Defund The Police' Mecca Of Minneapolis Overrun With Violence, 'Failed Leadership': Former Ag Candidate To ensure that justice was served, Brauchler said his office got a "little aggressive" and charged the driver with first-degree murder based on "extreme indifference." "We pursued it. And I'm not going to tell you it didn't have risks. I'm not going to tell you that I didn't have a pit in my stomach. But in about three and a half hours of deliberation after about a weeklong trial, the jury came back and said, 'Yeah, guilty of first-degree murder,' and we're all pretty satisfied with that outcome," Brauchler said. Brauchler added what this case also highlighted was that he feels "we have lost sight of the purpose of the criminal justice system and taken our eye off the ball on day-to-day crimes," like DUI. "One thing about this is that there is no time of day, no road you can drive on that you can say, 'Well, I'm safe from drunk drivers at this time on this road.' My God, this was Sunday. On a road in the middle of Castle Rock, not a highway, on a road but across the street from the Douglas County Fair. If we don't, I think, vigilantly attack this problem as much as any other, maybe more so, we're going to see more of this, and this is the most preventable crime there is. This guy chose to risk people's lives, and now he's going to lose his freedom," Brauchler said. Brauchler said Anderson's wife and children have recovered, but the ripple effects of witnessing the horrific scene are "still unknown as to how far they stretch through their lives." "How does seeing the violent death of their father in front of them, the way they saw him lying in the parking lot with a massive head injury, missing his leg above the ankle, how does that haunt them throughout the rest of their lives? I don't think anybody knows," Brauchler said. "I have spoken with the widow many times. She is resilient and tough, but you can also see there's something missing in her eyes. I don't know how better to describe it, but I've seen it a lot with loss like this and that blue flame that flickers back there that tells you somebody's fully engaged is just a little more diminished. It's a little harder to see. And my hope for that family is that they can figure out a way to find happiness even without Col. Anderson." Tom Mustin, director of media relations for Brauchler's office, told Fox News Digital that "typically, DUI cases lead to vehicular homicide charges, but this case set a new precedent and reflects DA Brauchler's tough-on-crime approach that helped win him the office." "I don't shy away from the description 'tough on crime,' but when did simply enforcing the law and having an expectation that there would be accountability for breaking it become 'tough on [crime]?'" Brauchler said. "That just tells you how far we've shifted away from the idea of personal responsibility for criminal conduct. But I'm proud of the position we've taken. It's been well-received everywhere. And I mean not just in our jurisdiction, but when I go to other jurisdictions." Brauchler, a Republican DA in the heavily blue Denver metro area, said Colorado has "taken such a sharp turn towards the progressive left that every other office is now dominated by Democrats," which makes his position unique. Fsu Shooting Suspect's Childhood Included Alleged Family Kidnapping Abroad, Custody Fight: Docs "I'll tell you one thing that sticks out to me that's odd is that I've made a real point of telling the public, even before I took office, we're going to be an office that stands for the rule of law, and that if people come down here to steal from us or victimize us, they ought to expect to be incarcerated," Brauchler said. "That message has been so overwhelmingly received and in a positive way, like people clap when I say that." Brauchler added that when he started working in his field 30 years ago and had this same messaging, it would have been a "yawn fest." "People would have been like, 'Duh, that's what prosecutors and police do.' But that's how far we've shifted in the other direction," Brauchler said. When asked about other high-profile cases like the Menendez brothers' case in California, Brauchler said "there's no good message that comes out of these two ever walking out of prison." "I remember when these cases happened, and I followed them like everybody else," Brauchler said. "But this was a brutal, planned murder for the most selfish reasons possible. Anything they come up with at this point, by way of excuse, has already been air-dried in front of the jury and rejected when they were convicted. There's no good message for America that comes out of these guys ever taking a free breath again." Brauchler said what is troubling about the Menendez brothers' case being brought back up is that "every time something like this happens and someone sees any amount of success, it encourages others to do this." "You have to believe that there are any number of defense attorneys out there who are willing to shoot for the notoriety or the paycheck. In order to try to capture something like this, I'm not denigrating them. I know that's business, but the answer should be that we should forget about the Menendez brothers." Brauchler said what the Menendez brothers' case highlights is something that has been happening since the Aurora theater shooting that is amplifying killers. "There has been a real concerted effort by decent people and many in the media to no longer amplify the killers; like, we should be focused on the victims. I would say since the Aurora theater shooter, I've said that guy's name maybe four times through the whole trial, which lasted from Jan. 20th until April 7th, 2015. I said his name exactly twice. And that was by design," Brauchler explained. "And so here we are again, focused on the Menendez brothers and the Netflix things about the Menendez brothers. And I understand that, but we should really de-glorify the criminals and focus more on the victims and the crime that was committed. And I think that if you let these guys out, you do the opposite." Brauchler added that there are even studies now about the correlation between the amount of notoriety that a criminal gets and then copycat-type crimes. "I'll give you an example with Columbine. The STEM school mass shooting that I covered, both of those shooters had passing fascination with those Columbine shooters. We had a near-mass shooting at another high school right down the road from my kid's high school. They both had a fascination with the Columbine shooters and the Aurora theater shooter. Guess which case he researched before he left his apartment back on July the 19th to go murder these people? Columbine. So, the more notorious an event or some people become, it does have an effect on other folks," Brauchler said. "I get it, we have to report the bad guy or bad girl at least once," Brauchler continued. "Then after that, let's not talk about them anymore. Let's talk about the crime. Let's talk about the victims, and let's go to court."Original article source: Republican DA bucks blue state's 'broken sentencing' with tough-on-crime approach
Fox News
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Republican DA bucks blue state's 'broken sentencing' with tough-on-crime approach
A tough-on-crime Republican district attorney is using his years of prosecuting some of the most infamous cases in Colorado to crack down on crime across the blue state. In January, George Brauchler became the first-ever district attorney for Colorado's 23rd Judicial District, making it the first time in more than 60 years that Colorado added a new judicial district. He previously served as DA for the 18th Judicial District, where he prosecuted some of the state's biggest mass shooting cases, including at an Aurora movie theater and Columbine High School. "I was a very young prosecutor when Columbine happened, and Columbine was the high school immediately to the south of where I graduated from high school," Brauchler told Fox News Digital during an interview. "And so, when it occurred to be assigned to prosecute the felonies out of that, I thought at the time that would be the biggest, worst case I would ever handle, and I was wrong and that's an amazing revelation to come to in this job." Soon after Brauchler was elected to a "broader version" of his current jurisdiction, the Aurora theater shooting case happened. "A guy walked into a movie theater at about 2:25 in Alameda and tried to murder a theater full of people, and I ended up prosecuting that. We also ended up having a mass shooting here at a school at the end of my time in office. I was also asked to do the mock cross-examination of the victim in the Kobe Bryant rape case out of Vail back, I don't know, almost 20 years ago now. It's not anything you could really ever plan for. It's just, you're there. You always say yes," Brauchler explained while reflecting on his earlier career. "You end up developing a skill set and an expertise. And then you find yourself in a position to run for the first new district attorney's office in over 60 years in Colorado. And you think, for whatever it's worth, as humbly as I can put this, there just isn't anybody that brings to this job right now the kind of experience that I have. And I hope to use it for the benefit of my community." Last month, Brauchler secured a rare first-degree murder conviction in a high-profile DUI case, which marked the first murder trial in Colorado's newly formed 23rd Judicial District. The case involved Paul Stephenson, 57, who Brauchler said drank a bottle of Fireball and two beers before crashing into a minivan that was parked in Castle Rock last August. "That case was so disturbing to me on a lot of levels," Brauchler said. Lt. Col. Matthew Anderson, a 39-year-old Air Force test pilot and father of four, was killed while pumping gas. His wife was inside the gas station store at the time of the crash. One of their children suffered a fractured skull and two others were also injured. "On a Sunday afternoon, filling his car with gas while his wife goes to get the kids Popsicles, some two-time convicted drunk pours himself into a lifted Chevy Silverado, crosses five lanes of traffic, hops a curb, hits the accelerator to 98% and crushes that car at 45 miles an hour, injuring three of the kids and killing Lt. Col. Matt Anderson," Brauchler said, describing the horrific scene that unfolded. "In Colorado, the gut reaction charge would be, oh, that's vehicular homicide. And that sounds horrible, but in Colorado, we have some of the weakest traffic laws in the country. So vehicular [homicide] would have only been punishable at most by 12 years in the Department of Corrections. Given our broken sentencing scheme, that guy would have been paroled in probably less than four years, and that seemed wholly unacceptable to me and everybody that looked at this case," Brauchler continued. To ensure that justice was served, Brauchler said his office got a "little aggressive" and charged the driver with first-degree murder based on "extreme indifference." "We pursued it. And I'm not going to tell you it didn't have risks. I'm not going to tell you that I didn't have a pit in my stomach. But in about three and a half hours of deliberation after about a weeklong trial, the jury came back and said, 'Yeah, guilty of first-degree murder,' and we're all pretty satisfied with that outcome," Brauchler said. Brauchler added what this case also highlighted was that he feels "we have lost sight of the purpose of the criminal justice system and taken our eye off the ball on day-to-day crimes," like DUI. "One thing about this is that there is no time of day, no road you can drive on that you can say, 'Well, I'm safe from drunk drivers at this time on this road.' My God, this was Sunday. On a road in the middle of Castle Rock, not a highway, on a road but across the street from the Douglas County Fair. If we don't, I think, vigilantly attack this problem as much as any other, maybe more so, we're going to see more of this, and this is the most preventable crime there is. This guy chose to risk people's lives, and now he's going to lose his freedom," Brauchler said. Brauchler said Anderson's wife and children have recovered, but the ripple effects of witnessing the horrific scene are "still unknown as to how far they stretch through their lives." "How does seeing the violent death of their father in front of them, the way they saw him lying in the parking lot with a massive head injury, missing his leg above the ankle, how does that haunt them throughout the rest of their lives? I don't think anybody knows," Brauchler said. "I have spoken with the widow many times. She is resilient and tough, but you can also see there's something missing in her eyes. I don't know how better to describe it, but I've seen it a lot with loss like this and that blue flame that flickers back there that tells you somebody's fully engaged is just a little more diminished. It's a little harder to see. And my hope for that family is that they can figure out a way to find happiness even without Col. Anderson." Tom Mustin, director of media relations for Brauchler's office, told Fox News Digital that "typically, DUI cases lead to vehicular homicide charges, but this case set a new precedent and reflects DA Brauchler's tough-on-crime approach that helped win him the office." "I don't shy away from the description 'tough on crime,' but when did simply enforcing the law and having an expectation that there would be accountability for breaking it become 'tough on [crime]?'" Brauchler said. "That just tells you how far we've shifted away from the idea of personal responsibility for criminal conduct. But I'm proud of the position we've taken. It's been well-received everywhere. And I mean not just in our jurisdiction, but when I go to other jurisdictions." Brauchler, a Republican DA in the heavily blue Denver metro area, said Colorado has "taken such a sharp turn towards the progressive left that every other office is now dominated by Democrats," which makes his position unique. "I'll tell you one thing that sticks out to me that's odd is that I've made a real point of telling the public, even before I took office, we're going to be an office that stands for the rule of law, and that if people come down here to steal from us or victimize us, they ought to expect to be incarcerated," Brauchler said. "That message has been so overwhelmingly received and in a positive way, like people clap when I say that." Brauchler added that when he started working in his field 30 years ago and had this same messaging, it would have been a "yawn fest." "People would have been like, 'Duh, that's what prosecutors and police do.' But that's how far we've shifted in the other direction," Brauchler said. When asked about other high-profile cases like the Menendez brothers' case in California, Brauchler said "there's no good message that comes out of these two ever walking out of prison." "I remember when these cases happened, and I followed them like everybody else," Brauchler said. "But this was a brutal, planned murder for the most selfish reasons possible. Anything they come up with at this point, by way of excuse, has already been air-dried in front of the jury and rejected when they were convicted. There's no good message for America that comes out of these guys ever taking a free breath again." Brauchler said what is troubling about the Menendez brothers' case being brought back up is that "every time something like this happens and someone sees any amount of success, it encourages others to do this." "You have to believe that there are any number of defense attorneys out there who are willing to shoot for the notoriety or the paycheck. In order to try to capture something like this, I'm not denigrating them. I know that's business, but the answer should be that we should forget about the Menendez brothers." Brauchler said what the Menendez brothers' case highlights is something that has been happening since the Aurora theater shooting that is amplifying killers. "There has been a real concerted effort by decent people and many in the media to no longer amplify the killers; like, we should be focused on the victims. I would say since the Aurora theater shooter, I've said that guy's name maybe four times through the whole trial, which lasted from Jan. 20th until April 7th, 2015. I said his name exactly twice. And that was by design," Brauchler explained. "And so here we are again, focused on the Menendez brothers and the Netflix things about the Menendez brothers. And I understand that, but we should really de-glorify the criminals and focus more on the victims and the crime that was committed. And I think that if you let these guys out, you do the opposite." Brauchler added that there are even studies now about the correlation between the amount of notoriety that a criminal gets and then copycat-type crimes. "I'll give you an example with Columbine. The STEM school mass shooting that I covered, both of those shooters had passing fascination with those Columbine shooters. We had a near-mass shooting at another high school right down the road from my kid's high school. They both had a fascination with the Columbine shooters and the Aurora theater shooter. Guess which case he researched before he left his apartment back on July the 19th to go murder these people? Columbine. So, the more notorious an event or some people become, it does have an effect on other folks," Brauchler said. "I get it, we have to report the bad guy or bad girl at least once," Brauchler continued. "Then after that, let's not talk about them anymore. Let's talk about the crime. Let's talk about the victims, and let's go to court." Stepheny Price is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. She covers topics including missing persons, homicides, national crime cases, illegal immigration, and more. Story tips and ideas can be sent to
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Yahoo
DA on Ponderosa High School bomb threat case: ‘We're not looking to return kids to the classroom'
DENVER (KDVR) — A juvenile is now officially facing charges for allegedly bringing an improvised explosive device to Ponderosa High School on March 4, prompting an evacuation of the school building. The boy allegedly brought a 'suspicious device' to the school and was arrested later in the day. The Douglas County Sheriff's Office credited a Safe2Tell report as first bringing the device at the school to its attention. Police find purse belonging to CU Boulder student found dead in Boulder Canyon On Wednesday, official charges of attempted murder after deliberation, attempted first-degree assault with extreme indifference, manufacture explosive or incendiary device, possession of explosive or incendiary device and interference with school activities. The office also filed two sentence enhancement charges of aggravated juvenile offender and violent juvenile offender. Colorado 23rd Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler weighed in on the charges on Wednesday after they were officially filed. He said that he's faced with the question of whether to ask the court to try the 15-year-old male suspect as an adult, or proceed in juvenile court. He said that if the suspect were 16 or older, he'd be able to file the charges directly into adult court. Because the student charged is younger, there would be a transfer hearing to present evidence before a judge who would then determine if the charges should be in adult or juvenile court. Brauchler said that if the suspect is charged as an adult, the boy's identity will become public. 'Very serious accusations, you can tell by the charge of the manufacture and possession of an incendiary device: We're talking about bomb making and bomb possessing,' Brauchler said. He explained that the outcome of the charges filed against the juvenile depends on if the case is prosecuted in adult or juvenile court. He said out-of-home placement for the juvenile could be a possible sentence if the case is prosecuted in juvenile court. Man killed in Aurora after online marketplace transaction meetup 'You know, anytime you have an allegation of any type of potential violence or injury taking place at a public school, and folks should know: My kids go to a public high school in this county, so this is not a small matter for me,' Brauchler said. 'It's serious, and it needs to be taken seriously. And trying to get to justice here, we also have to be open to the idea that there are things you can do as a school district, and I'm not in charge of them, that can make us better prepared to deal with or head this off, we've gotta do that.' Brauchler added that the 23rd Judicial District is focused on holding people responsible for their actions. 'We're not looking to return kids to the classroom, we're not looking to find a way to make excuses for what they did, we're looking to find the truth of the matter, address it and never, ever, ever have this happen again,' Brauchler said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
